Russia’s going to have to introduce gasoline ration cards or something (probably some kind of phone app, these days) if this continues. I mean, it’s bad enough to be gasoline-constrained in the first place. But the overhead of having the whole queue thing on top of it is going to increase transaction costs on top of that.
It looks like lemmy.today attempts to proxy this via img-rs (to keep IP addresses of viewers of embedded-in-comments media private — this isn’t a bad thing if it works) and then — probably because mp4 isn’t supported by img-rs — lemmy.today returns a 400 error code, resulting in Firefox just showing a “No video with supported format and MIME type found”.
A link directly to LaFinlandia’s video file in question, which I can view, and might also be viewable for someone else if they can’t view the above:
It sounds like, from listening to the above, that there is already some sort of ration card in place, assuming that that’s what the Russian woman speaking is complaining about when she’s talking about gas ration cards. Sounds like there’s some quantity of fuel that can be sold without rationing, and at that limit, one can only get fuel with a ration card. It sounds like she doesn’t have a gas ration card at all.
But I haven’t read any current articles on the situation, so I don’t know what the state of affairs is, or in what part of Russia this is.
If my understanding is correct, though, it sounds like one is still waiting through a line, and only then getting to try to use the card. It’s not implemented in such a way as to avoid the queue.
My guess is those are fleet cards, and yes if they limit sales without them it is rationing. Fleet cards world wide are normally for companies and it makes sense they would do rationing this way as their economy is already fucked enough (for them, I am down for more fucking) and this is the “softest” way to do a rationing without saying they are doing it.
So assuming that that’s what’s going on…these fleet cards would be used by fleet operators? Like…the Russian equivalent of, I guess, FedEx or trucking companies or taxi companies would basically be getting priority for available fuel?
EDIT: In support of your theory:
In response to the crisis, the city administration launched an online map allowing residents to monitor fuel availability at local filling stations in real time. As of July 3, every station listed on the map had run out of gasoline, with only diesel fuel remaining in stock.
Despite the shortages for the general public, motorists with corporate fuel cards issued by employers are still able to refuel.
Almost any business can set up a fleet card, its not just big players. But the big companies tend to be the main users.
This is just a way to ration but not call it that. And knowing russians they are going to cheat the everliving fuck out of this.
A gas station with an army without gas and without an army. I feel like there is a Chinese proverb or a Budah quote in there…
They saddly still have an army, now an equipped army? That is a different question.
Jock itch guys are trustworthy. /s
